When partners choose a technology alliance, they’re making a 10-year bet. The question isn’t just “What can this vendor deliver today?” It’s “Will they lead the technologies that define the next decade?” Something significant is happening at Cisco, and it’s changing the conversation about where true innovation leadership lives.
Building Markets That Don’t Exist Yet
Most companies optimize existing products. The best companies build for markets that haven’t materialized yet. Cisco does both, and the distinction matters for partners planning their next decade.
Cisco drives innovation across the company—from core networking to security to collaboration. Outshift by Cisco serves as the company’s incubation engine, focused on emerging technologies that target adjacent markets and build meaningful businesses. Operating through focused venture pods—small, nimble teams that can rapidly test hypotheses and pivot when needed—Outshift explores technologies from agentic AI infrastructure to quantum-safe networking, validating which breakthroughs are ready to scale through Cisco’s global platform. This isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about systematic investment in technologies that will become essential infrastructure, the way the internet became essential decades ago.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Agentic AI: When Outshift spotted the agentic AI trend early, the team didn’t just build a point solution—they built the entire platform for the Internet of Agents. Launched as open source in March 2025, AGNTCY includes agent discovery, identity framework, SLIM messaging, and observability tools. Within four months, Outshift donated the complete project to the Linux Foundation in July 2025, with 75+ companies supporting the initiative and with Cisco, Dell, Red Hat, Oracle, and Google as founding contributors. This validates that we’re not just early, we’re leading. These agents are already flowing back into our product teams, solving customer problems, and creating new market opportunities for partners.
AI Infrastructure: High-density AI workloads are reshaping data center requirements. That’s why we’re pioneering immersion cooling technologies alongside our networking innovations. This integrated platform thinking (connecting physical infrastructure, networking, and emerging technologies) is how partners differentiate in markets where computational density determines competitive advantage.
Quantum Networking: Every piece of encrypted data transmitted today can be harvested and stored until quantum computers are powerful enough to decrypt it. While quantum computing at scale remains years away, quantum networking is closer to reality—particularly for Q4C (quantum networking for classical computing), where security tops the use case list. Cisco isn’t just researching possibilities; the company is building the infrastructure for quantum-secure networks from the ground up, combining its networking foundation with quantum-safe security. Partners betting on Cisco are betting on being ready for the inevitable quantum transition, not scrambling to catch up when it arrives.
Why This Matters for Your Business
These aren’t disconnected innovation experiments. They represent both systematic incubation of emerging technologies and innovation in technologies ready for market. They represent a coordinated strategic investment where Our Chief Strategy Officer, executive leadership, and engineering teams work together on what matters next. This isn’t scattered R&D—it’s focused investment in technologies we believe will define infrastructure over the next decade.
For partners who understand where we are headed, this creates three distinct advantages:
- Early Market Position: If our work on the Internet of Agents becomes the standard for enterprise agentic AI, or when quantum networking shifts from emerging to essential, partners who understood Cisco’s strategy early will already be positioned. You’ll be explaining markets you helped create, not catching up to competitors who got there first.
- Integrated Solutions, Not Point Products: Our innovation strategy isn’t about bolting new technologies onto old architectures. Quantum networking integrates with security. AI infrastructure connects to cooling and power distribution. Agentic frameworks flow into product roadmaps. Partners who grasp this integration can architect solutions competitors can’t match.
- Proof of Commitment: When Dell, Red Hat, Oracle, and Google contribute to our agentic AI framework, that’s market validation. When we acquire companies and integrate their technologies into core products, that’s execution. When our Chief Strategy Officer (who scaled Splunk from $300M to $5B through the cloud transition) places strategic bets on these technologies, that’s conviction.
See It for Yourself at Cisco Partner Summit 2025
We’re opening up what’s typically reserved for internal strategy sessions. Join Ammar Maraqa (Chief Strategy Officer), Vijoy Pandey (SVP and GM, Outshift by Cisco), and Alex Pujols (VP, Global Partner Enablement) for an exclusive session revealing:
- Real technologies solving customer problems today, not future concepts
- Why industry leaders are following Cisco’s lead in agentic AI, quantum networking, and AI infrastructure
- How these innovations create new market opportunities for partners, not just improved versions of existing products
- Why Cisco isn’t keeping up with innovation—we’re setting the pace
This session is designed for partners making strategic decisions: CEOs evaluating long-term alliances, leaders building technology roadmaps, and teams who need confidence that their Cisco partnership will drive growth for the next decade.
The Conversation Changes Here
We hear it frequently: “I didn’t know Cisco was investing there.” This session changes that conversation permanently. You’ll leave understanding why Cisco’s innovation engine (combining strategy, investment, and incubation as one unified team) is building what matters next. You’ll see proof that these aren’t random experiments, but disciplined investments in technologies that will become essential infrastructure.
Most importantly, you’ll understand why the smartest long-term bet for your business might not be on the companies everyone’s watching. It might be on the innovation strategy everyone’s about to discover.
Join us at Cisco Partner Summit 2025. See what we’re building. Decide for yourself who to bet on for the next decade.
Session Details
Cisco’s Innovation Strategy: Building the Technologies That Will Define the Next Decade
Speakers: Ammar Maraqa (Chief Strategy Officer), Vijoy Pandey (SVP/GM, Outshift by Cisco), Alex Pujols (VP, Global Partner Enablement)
Whether you’re in the Solutions Showcase evaluating our latest technologies or planning your strategic roadmap for 2026 and beyond, this session provides the strategic context that turns individual innovations into competitive advantage.
We’re not asking you to take our word for it. We’re showing you the evidence, the investments, and the execution. Then you decide.
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